Hume Program Week Seven

We are rapidly approaching the end of term with only one week left on the program! We started the week off at Roxy Youth Centre again, this time to do a hip hop session with Scott. The students got together and wrote a fantastic rap about their lives, chose a beat and practiced performing it. We're hoping to be able to perform this great piece live at the Graduation next week. In the afternoon we headed back to Maribyrnong Youth Gym where Sal took us through a great boxing session for the last time. Everyone participated really well and we were feeling much more energised afterwards.

Thursday we met the students at the station and came back to headquarters to prepare for camp. We once again packed up all the camping gear before jumping on the bus and heading to Alexandra for our two day bike riding camp. This camp also forms the final assessment for the students- they are assessed on the areas of Organisation, Team Work, Participation, Attitude and Behaviour. These are values that we hold at high importance throughout the program, and encourage the students to focus on them back at school as well.

Once we got to Alexandra and made sure all our bikes were in good working order, we headed off along the Great Victorian Rail Trail to Molesworth- our destination for the day. The students all worked well together to travel as a group, and supported each other to get through the 17km ride. We moved well together and arrived at Molesworth Caravan Park with plenty of time to set up camp before cooking up a huge BBQ dinner. We spent the evening chatting around the campfire, cooking marshmallows and reflecting on the day.

Friday morning had everyone up early, packing up camp and pitching in to cook a warm breakfast before our second ride another 17km into Yea. This day started off with a pretty solid uphill, which everyone powered through well at their own pace. Luckily there was plenty of farm animals to watch as distractions and lots of good opportunities to chat with each other. At the top of the hill we hit Cheviot Tunnel, an old railway tunnel where we ride 200m mostly in the dark-lots of fun! This was also our halfway point, where we knew the trip was mostly downhill from here. It didn't take too long for the group to travel into Yea, where we had lunch before heading back to Melbourne.

Thanks to Erik from YSS and Ebony for coming out and spending the camp with the students, it was really appreciated. And thanks to the students for a wonderful camp, with lots of great successes and laughs.